THE BOMB Cutback Week – Half Marathon Training Week 9

Good morning! I hope you guys were all extra special to your mommas this year. I admit I lamed out a little bit and made a card at 11pm the night before, but I DID buy her Chanel perfume as per usual so all should be forgiven. 😉

She’s worth it though.

I felt kind of bad going for a run Sunday morning but I am so glad that I did because it ended up being AMAZING! This is what happened this week:

Monday: OFF

Tuesday: 5 miles @ 8:29. I hate to start off negatively, but this was the only bad run of the week! I don’t know what was wrong with me but I just could not get myself together. My legs felt as though someone had replaced my bones with cement and I was STRUGGLING just to maintain a pace that I have been able to hold for 10+ miles. I’m happy that I somehow managed to keep the average pace under 8:30, though! I am telling myself that I actually love these types of runs because they make me mentally stronger. 😉

Wednesday: 40 minutes total body strength

Thursday: 5.3 miles @ 7:59. WOAH run #1! Seriously, when I don’t check my Garmin obsessively I run so so so much better. This was 100% unintentional but it ended up being a perfect progression run: 8:29, 8:03, 8:02, 7:54, 7:40. The 0.3 was at a 7:13 pace! I have been stuck feeling like sub-8 miles are beyond my reach but I’m starting to prove myself wrong!

Friday: 30 minutes total body strength

Saturday: OFF

Sunday: 5 miles @ 7:46. I have no words to describe this run other than HAPPY. Like I said, I felt a little bit guilty heading out on Mother’s Day but my half is sneaking up on me so I knew it was important to get out. I’m trying to only look at my Garmin around halfway of whatever distance I plan to run just so that I know where to turn around – and I was blown away by the fact that I was running a 23:xx 5k!

That is WAY faster than my current PR while running a longer distance and not even racing. Splits for this run were as follows: 7:48, 7:44, 8:02, 7:48, 7:30.

I think it is safe to say that I have found my happy distance? Full disclosure: I was super annoyed that I had to run that extra 0.3 on Thursday but I ran a slightly different route and wasn’t about to walk home at 6am. The OCD in me is cringing at the fact that I didn’t finish on even mileage but I’m still here so there’s that. 😉

I hit 20 miles last week so I don’t mind that I did 15 this time at all! I will have plenty of time for increasing my mileage in the future. 🙂 With every week that goes by I get more and more excited about running and about my FIRST HALF MARATHON in three weeks!!